Recorded audible information, such as recorded speech, is used for a variety of applications. For example, audible speech recordings are left as voicemail messages, people listen to recorded books, podcasts, and the like, and recorded audible information can be used as a teaching tool—for example, to teach another language or for other subjects.
An ability of a person to understand playback of audible content (e.g., speech) can depend on the user's/listener's command over a language, accent of a narrator of the recorded information (e.g., relative to an accent of a listener), and the like, along with the user's command of cultural and regional influences on a language. For example, when listening to playback of recorded audible information, if the user doesn't understand the language or dialect of the recorded speech, the listener may have to slow down the playback of the speech and/or replay some or all of the recorded speech one or more, e.g., several times. Additionally or alternatively, the listener may resort to use dictionary to understand keywords. This results in delay in listening to the information and of understanding the subject matter of the recorded information.
A speed of the spoken information, a tone of the voice that recorded the information, and even the recorded words can affect a listener's/user's understanding of the subject matter of the recorded information when listening to playback of the recorded information. The same can be true when listening to audible information derived from a text to speech converter.
As the listener becomes familiar with a language, dialect, tone, or the like over time, the listener's vocabulary builds, and as a result, the listener/user may be able to pick up content of recorded audible information at a much faster pace. Hence, a solution that can help a user/listener understand content of playback of recorded audible information by personalizing the content based on the user's command of, for example a language or dialect, is desired.
Any discussion of problems provided in this section has been included in this disclosure solely for the purposes of providing a context for the present invention, and should not be taken as an admission that any or all of the discussion was known at the time the invention was made.
It will be appreciated that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of illustrated embodiments of the present invention.